Tehran is finished negotiating with President Donald Trump, Hossein Dehghan, Iran’s former defence minister and advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said.
“Iran will never engage in negotiations with US President Donald Trump, because we consider him a criminal and a terrorist, not a president,” Dehghan said, speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic on Monday.
Commenting on the latest escalation of tensions in the Persian Gulf, Dehghan warned that “any military move by the US against Iran in Persian Gulf waters will not go unanswered and will be met with Iran’s extensive response.”
Dehghan also reiterated that Tehran’s missile program, as well as Iran’s regional policies, are not up for negotiation.
Separately, the advisor indicated that Tehran remains ready to hold talks with Saudi Arabia without any preconditions, and said that Iran’s relations with the United Arab Emirates have been improving recently. Dehghan urged Riyadh to have the courage to “admit the failure of its war in Yemen,” and to change course, to “stop the bleeding and open the way for a political solution” to escape the “quagmire.”
Dehghan also commented on Iran’s position on the war in Libya, saying Tehran recognizes the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, and would like to see a political solution to the crisis. The retired general stressed that “Iran does not provide any significant support” to General Khalifa Haftar or the Libyan National Army, adding that claims to the contrary are “laughable.”
Relations between Tehran and Washington began collapsing in 2018 after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal following lobbying from Israel. In 2019, after the US announced the deployment of a carrier strike group to the Middle East, a series of oil tankers were hit in mysterious sabotage attacks which the US blamed on Iran. In June 2019, Iran shot down a cutting-edge US reconnaissance drone over the Strait of Hormuz, prompting President Trump to consider massed strikes against the Islamic Republic, only to change his mind at the last moment after being informed that over 100 Iranians would be killed. In January 2020, a US drone strike killed Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iran responded by launching missile strikes on two US bases in Iraq, leaving over 100 US troops with traumatic brain injuries.
From time to time over the past two years, President Trump has hinted at the need for fresh negotiations with Iran. Tehran has rejected the overtures, saying it would not agree to talks with Washington unless all sanctions against the country were removed first. Last year, during his visit to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reportedly snubbed Trump and refused an impromptu meeting arranged by French President Emmanuel Macron.
This week, in a preview of his new memoir on his time in the White House, former National Security Advisor John Bolton revealed that Israeli and Saudi officials, as well as members of Trump’s own staff, have repeatedly sought to prevent the president from meeting with Iranian officials. According to Bolton, Trump was eager to speak to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, in 2019, only to be advised against it.
